Boo Keeps Passion For Basketball

Recruiters Listen To Hampton Native

Through eight years of tireless networking and devotion, Williams has helped the Hampton Roads area become a fertile ground for college basketball talent. It happened because Williams believes a few good jump shots can open a young person's doors for life.

"Basketball gives kids a chance at hope," he said. "The only thing a person can ask for is a chance."

Williams has worked full-time for 15 months as an agent for State Farm Insurance in a new, worm-green office on Coliseum Drive.

"It's a new challenge and it's taking a lot of time," he said. "I enjoy what I'm doing."

But no matter how many policies he sells, Williams may never lose his passion for basketball.

Every Tuesday and Friday night during this high school season, he'll watch teen-agers dribble, pass and shoot. Almost every night of the year, he'll be on the phone with college coaches and/or recruiting experts.

Williams said he devotes "at least 85 or 90 hours" per week to the insurance business and basketball.

"Make sure you keep your life insurance clear, so when you die you've got somebody to bury you," he said.

Williams starred as a player, first for Phoebus High School and then for St. Joseph's University, where he scored 1,554 career points from 1977-81 and made the Philadelphia Big Five Hall of Fame.

In college, he dreamed of developing a youth basketball program in Hampton Roads modeled after those of Sonny Hill in Philadelphia and Riverside Church in New York. He has.

In eight years of directing the Tidewater Summer League program and tirelessly lobbying for his pupils, Williams has helped 172 players receive college basketball grants-in-aid.

"I've known Boo since he was a junior in high school, and that's what he does best," Phoebus' girls' basketball Coach Mike Tallon said. "If Boo hadn't done it, nobody would have ever done it. Nobody would have taken the time."

Williams has his summer Amateur Athletic Union teams participate in education programs, listen to guest lecturers and do community service projects as well as play games, and he hopes to expand the community service role more in the future.

He has taken his all-star teams across the nation and to Ireland for tournaments, and his team has hosted the Soviet Union's junior national team several times.

"I think high school coaches have done a good job laying the foundation for the kids," Williams said. "The only thing I have done is, through my connections throughout the country, I've given them the exposure they need to get a scholarship."

Some - J.R. Reid, Alonzo Mourning, Terry Kirby and Bryant Stith - could have done it without him. Some couldn't have.

"His reputation for being able to spot talent is excellent," Tallon said. "If there's a kid that's maybe borderline, Boo is usually able to find a place for him to play.

"He seems to treat (young players) all the same. He's been able to get help because he's such a nice guy. He's not making a massive (financial) killing off this."

Ed Young, the second-year head coach at Norview High School who guided Suffolk to the state Group A championship in 1988, supports Williams' efforts.

"He gets some of the better players in the Tidewater area, then takes the cream of that crop and takes them on the road, which helps to get our area the exposure which we really deserve," Young said. "We have a great many fairly good players who just need the exposure."

There are no clones of Reid or Mourning in this year's high school crop. Among the boys, Williams listed Bethel's Corey Stewart, Hampton's Aaron Mundy and Ganon Baker, Denbigh's Brian "Speedy" Green, Warwick's Mann Venable and York's Shawn Walker at the top of class of 1990.

Williams said Phoebus' Monica Hart and Juanita Cook, and Menchville's Karen Barefoot were among the upper crust among Group AAA girls.

"Some places may have better boys' programs and some may have better girls' programs, but for boys and girls together, I think we're the best program in the country," Williams said.

The ultimate goal for Williams is to see every player in his program receive a college scholarship and provide an example to youngsters.

"It's a tough goal and people say it's an impossible goal, but there are a lot of schools in the country," Williams said.

Baker, who signed with NCAA Division I Duquesne this fall, gave Williams much of the credit.

"He's the one that sent me to the Five-Star Basketball Camp (in Philadelphia) over the summer," Baker said. "He knows about every college basketball coach there is. He helped me throughout the years and gave me the exposure I needed to get that scholarship.

"He gave me the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas, Kentucky and New York, and I've played against almost every All-American there is in the country. I'm very fortunate to have a guy like that around."